Hamlet

Act IV, Scene 4.

Near Elsinore.

Enter Fortinbras with his Army over the stage.

Fortinbras. Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish king. 2785

Tell him that by his license Fortinbras

Craves the conveyance of a promis'd march

Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.

If that his Majesty would aught with us,

We shall express our duty in his eye; 2790

And let him know so.

Norwegian Captain. I will do't, my lord.

Fortinbras. Go softly on.

Exeunt [all but the Captain].

Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, [Guildenstern,] and others.

Hamlet. Good sir, whose powers are these?

Norwegian Captain. They are of Norway, sir.

Hamlet. How purpos'd, sir, I pray you?

Norwegian Captain. Against some part of Poland.

Hamlet. Who commands them, sir? 2800

Norwegian Captain. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.

Hamlet. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,

Or for some frontier?

Norwegian Captain. Truly to speak, and with no addition,

We go to gain a little patch of ground 2805

That hath in it no profit but the name.

To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;

Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole

A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

Hamlet. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. 2810

Norwegian Captain. Yes, it is already garrison'd.

Hamlet. Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats

Will not debate the question of this straw.

This is th' imposthume of much wealth and peace,

That inward breaks, and shows no cause without 2815

Why the man dies. – I humbly thank you, sir.

Norwegian Captain. God b' wi' you, sir. [Exit.]

Rosencrantz. Will't please you go, my lord?

Hamlet. I'll be with you straight. Go a little before.

[Exeunt all but Hamlet.] 2820

How all occasions do inform against me

And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,

If his chief good and market of his time

Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.

Sure he that made us with such large discourse, 2825

Looking before and after, gave us not

That capability and godlike reason

To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be

Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple

Of thinking too precisely on th' event, – 2830

A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom

And ever three parts coward, – I do not know

Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do,'

Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means

To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me. 2835

Witness this army of such mass and charge,

Led by a delicate and tender prince,

Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd,

Makes mouths at the invisible event,

Exposing what is mortal and unsure 2840

To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,

Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great

Is not to stir without great argument,

But greatly to find quarrel in a straw

When honour's at the stake. How stand I then, 2845

That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,

Excitements of my reason and my blood,

And let all sleep, while to my shame I see

The imminent death of twenty thousand men

That for a fantasy and trick of fame 2850

Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot

Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,

Which is not tomb enough and continent

To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,

My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! Exit. 2855

Act IV, Scene 5.

Elsinore. A room in the Castle.

Enter Horatio, Queen, and a Gentleman.

Gertrude. I will not speak with her.

Gentleman. She is importunate, indeed distract.

Her mood will needs be pitied.

Gertrude. What would she have? 2860

Gentleman. She speaks much of her father; says she hears

There's tricks i' th' world, and hems, and beats her heart;

Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,

That carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing,

Yet the unshaped use of it doth move 2865

The hearers to collection; they aim at it,

And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;

Which, as her winks and nods and gestures yield them,

Indeed would make one think there might be thought,

Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily. 2870

Horatio. 'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.

Gertrude. Let her come in.

[Exit Gentleman.]

[Aside] To my sick soul (as sin's true nature is) 2875

Each toy seems Prologue to some great amiss.

So full of artless jealousy is guilt

It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

Enter Ophelia distracted.

Ophelia. Where is the beauteous Majesty of Denmark? 2880

Gertrude. How now, Ophelia?

Ophelia. [sings]

How should I your true-love know

From another one?

By his cockle bat and' staff 2885

And his sandal shoon.

Gertrude. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?

Ophelia. Say you? Nay, pray You mark.

(Sings) He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and gone; 2890

At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a stone.

O, ho!

Gertrude. Nay, but Ophelia-

Ophelia. Pray you mark. 2895

(Sings) White his shroud as the mountain snow-

Enter King.

Gertrude. Alas, look here, my lord!

Ophelia. [Sings]

Larded all with sweet flowers; 2900

Which bewept to the grave did not go

With true-love showers.

Claudius. How do you, pretty lady?

Ophelia. Well, God dild you! They say the owl was a baker's daughter.

Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at 2905

your table!

Claudius. Conceit upon her father.

Ophelia. Pray let's have no words of this; but when they ask, you what

it means, say you this:

(Sings) To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day, 2910

All in the morning bedtime,

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine.

Then up he rose and donn'd his clo'es

And dupp'd the chamber door, 2915

Let in the maid, that out a maid

Never departed more.

Claudius. Pretty Ophelia!

Ophelia. Indeed, la, without an oath, I'll make an end on't!

[Sings] By Gis and by Saint Charity, 2920

Alack, and fie for shame!

Young men will do't if they come to't

By Cock, they are to blame.

Quoth she, 'Before you tumbled me,

You promis'd me to wed.' 2925

He answers:

'So would I 'a' done, by yonder sun,

An thou hadst not come to my bed.'

Claudius. How long hath she been thus?

Ophelia. I hope all will be well. We must be patient; but I cannot 2930

choose but weep to think they would lay him i' th' cold ground.

My brother shall know of it; and so I thank you for your good

counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies. Good night, sweet

ladies. Good night, good night. Exit

Claudius. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you. 2935

[Exit Horatio.]

O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs

All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude,

When sorrows come, they come not single spies.

But in battalions! First, her father slain; 2940

Next, your son gone, and he most violent author

Of his own just remove; the people muddied,

Thick and and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers

For good Polonius' death, and we have done but greenly

In hugger-mugger to inter him; poor Ophelia 2945

Divided from herself and her fair judgment,

Without the which we are pictures or mere beasts;

Last, and as much containing as all these,

Her brother is in secret come from France;

Feeds on his wonder, keeps, himself in clouds, 2950

And wants not buzzers to infect his ear

With pestilent speeches of his father's death,

Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,

Will nothing stick our person to arraign

In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this, 2955

Like to a murd'ring piece, in many places

Give me superfluous death. A noise within.

Gertrude. Alack, what noise is this?

Claudius. Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door.

[Enter a Messenger.] 2960

What is the matter?

Messenger. Save Yourself, my lord:

The ocean, overpeering of his list,

Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste

Than Young Laertes, in a riotous head, 2965

O'erbears Your offices. The rabble call him lord;

And, as the world were now but to begin,

Antiquity forgot, custom not known,

The ratifiers and props of every word,

They cry 'Choose we! Laertes shall be king!' 2970

Caps, hands, and tongues applaud it to the clouds,

'Laertes shall be king! Laertes king!'

A noise within.

Gertrude. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!

O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs! 2975

Claudius. The doors are broke.

Enter Laertes with others.

Laertes. Where is this king? – Sirs, staid you all without.

All. No, let's come in!

Laertes. I pray you give me leave. 2980

All. We will, we will!

Laertes. I thank you. Keep the door. [Exeunt his Followers.]

O thou vile king,

Give me my father!

Gertrude. Calmly, good Laertes. 2985

Laertes. That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard;

Cries cuckold to my father; brands the harlot

Even here between the chaste unsmirched brows

Of my true mother.

Claudius. What is the cause, Laertes, 2990

That thy rebellion looks so giantlike?

Let him go, Gertrude. Do not fear our person.

There's such divinity doth hedge a king

That treason can but peep to what it would,

Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes, 2995

Why thou art thus incens'd. Let him go, Gertrude.

Speak, man.

Laertes. Where is my father?

Claudius. Dead.

Gertrude. But not by him! 3000

Claudius. Let him demand his fill.

Laertes. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with:

To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil

Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!

I dare damnation. To this point I stand, 3005

That both the world, I give to negligence,

Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'd

Most throughly for my father.

Claudius. Who shall stay you?

Laertes. My will, not all the world! 3010

And for my means, I'll husband them so well

They shall go far with little.

Claudius. Good Laertes,

If you desire to know the certainty

Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge 3015

That sweepstake you will draw both friend and foe,

Winner and loser?

Laertes. None but his enemies.

Claudius. Will you know them then?

Laertes. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms 3020

And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican,

Repast them with my blood.

Claudius. Why, now You speak

Like a good child and a true gentleman.

That I am guiltless of your father's death, 3025

And am most sensibly in grief for it,

It shall as level to your judgment pierce

As day does to your eye.

A noise within: 'Let her come in.'

Laertes. How now? What noise is that? 3030

[Enter Ophelia. ]

O heat, dry up my brains! Tears seven times salt

Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!

By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight

Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May! 3035

Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!

O heavens! is't possible a young maid's wits

Should be as mortal as an old man's life?

Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine,

It sends some precious instance of itself 3040

After the thing it loves.

Ophelia. [sings]

They bore him barefac'd on the bier

(Hey non nony, nony, hey nony)

And in his grave rain'd many a tear. 3045

Fare you well, my dove!

Laertes. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge,

It could not move thus.

Ophelia. You must sing 'A-down a-down, and you call him a-down-a.' O,

how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his 3050

master's daughter.

Laertes. This nothing's more than matter.

Ophelia. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love,

remember. And there is pansies, that's for thoughts.

Laertes. A document in madness! Thoughts and remembrance fitted. 3055

Ophelia. There's fennel for you, and columbines. There's rue for you,

and here's some for me. We may call it herb of grace o' Sundays.

O, you must wear your rue with a difference! There's a daisy. I

would give you some violets, but they wither'd all when my father

died. They say he made a good end. 3060

[Sings] For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.

Laertes. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,

She turns to favour and to prettiness.

Ophelia. [sings]

And will he not come again? 3065

And will he not come again?

No, no, he is dead;

Go to thy deathbed;

He never will come again.

His beard was as white as snow, 3070

All flaxen was his poll.

He is gone, he is gone,

And we cast away moan.

God 'a'mercy on his soul!

And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God b' wi' you. 3075

Exit.

Laertes. Do you see this, O God?

Claudius. Laertes, I must commune with your grief,

Or you deny me right. Go but apart,

Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, 3080

And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me.

If by direct or by collateral hand

They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,

Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,

To you in satisfaction; but if not, 3085

Be you content to lend your patience to us,

And we shall jointly labour with your soul

To give it due content.

Laertes. Let this be so.

His means of death, his obscure funeral- 3090

No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,

No noble rite nor formal ostentation, —

Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,

That I must call't in question.

Claudius. So you shall; 3095

And where th' offence is let the great axe fall.

I pray you go with me.

Exeunt

Act IV, Scene 6.

Elsinore. Another room in the Castle.

Enter Horatio with an Attendant.

Horatio. What are they that would speak with me? 3100

Servant. Seafaring men, sir. They say they have letters for you.

Horatio. Let them come in.

[Exit Attendant.]

I do not know from what part of the world

I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet. 3105

Enter Sailors.

Sailor. God bless you, sir.

Horatio. Let him bless thee too.

Sailor. 'A shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for you,

sir, – it comes from th' ambassador that was bound for England- if 3110

your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

Horatio. [reads the letter] 'Horatio, when thou shalt have overlook'd

this, give these fellows some means to the King. They have

letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of

very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too 3115

slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I

boarded them. On the instant they got clear of our ship; so I

alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves

of mercy; but they knew what they did: I am to do a good turn for

them. Let the King have the letters I have sent, and repair thou 3120

to me with as much speed as thou wouldst fly death. I have words

to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb; yet are they much too

light for the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring

thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course

for England. Of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell. 3125

'He that thou knowest thine, HAMLET.'

Come, I will give you way for these your letters,

And do't the speedier that you may direct me

To him from whom you brought them. Exeunt.

Act IV, Scene 7.

Elsinore. Another room in the Castle.

Enter King and Laertes.

Claudius. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,

And You must put me in your heart for friend,

Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,

That he which hath your noble father slain

Pursued my life. 3135

Laertes. It well appears. But tell me

Why you proceeded not against these feats

So crimeful and so capital in nature,

As by your safety, wisdom, all things else,

You mainly were stirr'd up. 3140

Claudius. O, for two special reasons,

Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd,

But yet to me they are strong. The Queen his mother

Lives almost by his looks; and for myself, —

My virtue or my plague, be it either which, – 3145

She's so conjunctive to my life and soul

That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,

I could not but by her. The other motive

Why to a public count I might not go

Is the great love the general gender bear him, 3150

Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,

Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,

Convert his gives to graces; so that my arrows,

Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,

Would have reverted to my bow again, 3155

And not where I had aim'd them.

Laertes. And so have I a noble father lost;

A sister driven into desp'rate terms,

Whose worth, if praises may go back again,

Stood challenger on mount of all the age 3160

For her perfections. But my revenge will come.

Claudius. Break not your sleeps for that. You must not think

That we are made of stuff so flat and dull

That we can let our beard be shook with danger,

And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more. 3165

I lov'd your father, and we love ourself,

And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine-

[Enter a Messenger with letters.]

How now? What news?

Messenger. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: 3170

This to your Majesty; this to the Queen.

Claudius. From Hamlet? Who brought them?

Messenger. Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not.

They were given me by Claudio; he receiv'd them

Of him that brought them. 3175

Claudius. Laertes, you shall hear them.

Leave us.

[Exit Messenger.]

[Reads]'High and Mighty, —You shall know I am set naked on your

kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes; 3180

when I shall (first asking your pardon thereunto) recount the

occasion of my sudden and more strange return. 'HAMLET.'

What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?

Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?

Laertes. Know you the hand? 3185

Claudius. 'Tis Hamlet's character. 'Naked!'

And in a postscript here, he says 'alone.'

Can you advise me?

Laertes. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come!

It warms the very sickness in my heart 3190

That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,

'Thus didest thou.'

Claudius. If it be so, Laertes

(As how should it be so? how otherwise?),

Will you be rul'd by me? 3195

Laertes. Ay my lord,

So you will not o'errule me to a peace.

Claudius. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd

As checking at his voyage, and that he means

No more to undertake it, I will work him 3200

To exploit now ripe in my device,

Under the which he shall not choose but fall;

And for his death no wind shall breathe

But even his mother shall uncharge the practice

And call it accident. 3205

Laertes. My lord, I will be rul'd;

The rather, if you could devise it so

That I might be the organ.

Claudius. It falls right.

You have been talk'd of since your travel much, 3210

And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality

Wherein they say you shine, Your sum of parts

Did not together pluck such envy from him

As did that one; and that, in my regard,

Of the unworthiest siege. 3215

Laertes. What part is that, my lord?

Claudius. A very riband in the cap of youth-

Yet needfull too; for youth no less becomes

The light and careless livery that it wears

Than settled age his sables and his weeds, 3220

Importing health and graveness. Two months since

Here was a gentleman of Normandy.

I have seen myself, and serv'd against, the French,

And they can well on horseback; but this gallant

Had witchcraft in't. He grew unto his seat, 3225

And to such wondrous doing brought his horse

As had he been incorps'd and demi-natur'd

With the brave beast. So far he topp'd my thought

That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,

Come short of what he did. 3230

Laertes. A Norman was't?

Claudius. A Norman.

Laertes. Upon my life, Lamound.

Claudius. The very same.

Laertes. I know him well. He is the broach indeed 3235

And gem of all the nation.

Claudius. He made confession of you;

And gave you such a masterly report

For art and exercise in your defence,

And for your rapier most especially, 3240

That he cried out 'twould be a sight indeed

If one could match you. The scrimers of their nation

He swore had neither motion, guard, nor eye,

If you oppos'd them. Sir, this report of his

Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy 3245

That he could nothing do but wish and beg

Your sudden coming o'er to play with you.

Now, out of this-

Laertes. What out of this, my lord?

Claudius. Laertes, was your father dear to you? 3250

Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,

A face without a heart,'

Laertes. Why ask you this?

Claudius. Not that I think you did not love your father;

But that I know love is begun by time, 3255

And that I see, in passages of proof,

Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.

There lives within the very flame of love

A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it;

And nothing is at a like goodness still; 3260

For goodness, growing to a plurisy,

Dies in his own too-much. That we would do,

We should do when we would; for this 'would' changes,

And hath abatements and delays as many

As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents; 3265

And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh,

That hurts by easing. But to the quick o' th' ulcer!

Hamlet comes back. What would you undertake

To show yourself your father's son in deed

More than in words? 3270

Laertes. To cut his throat i' th' church!

Claudius. No place indeed should murther sanctuarize;

Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,

Will you do this? Keep close within your chamber.

Hamlet return'd shall know you are come home. 3275

We'll put on those shall praise your excellence

And set a double varnish on the fame

The Frenchman gave you; bring you in fine together

And wager on your heads. He, being remiss,

Most generous, and free from all contriving, 3280

Will not peruse the foils; so that with ease,

Or with a little shuffling, you may choose

A sword unbated, and, in a pass of practice,

Requite him for your father.

Laertes. I will do't! 3285

And for that purpose I'll anoint my sword.

I bought an unction of a mountebank,

So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,

Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,

Collected from all simples that have virtue 3290

Under the moon, can save the thing from death

This is but scratch'd withal. I'll touch my point

With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,

It may be death.

Claudius. Let's further think of this, 3295

Weigh what convenience both of time and means

May fit us to our shape. If this should fall,

And that our drift look through our bad performance.

'Twere better not assay'd. Therefore this project

Should have a back or second, that might hold 3300

If this did blast in proof. Soft! let me see.

We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings-

I ha't!

When in your motion you are hot and dry-

As make your bouts more violent to that end- 3305

And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepar'd him

A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping,

If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,

Our purpose may hold there. – But stay, what noise,

[Enter Queen.] 3310

How now, sweet queen?

Gertrude. One woe doth tread upon another's heel,

So fast they follow. Your sister's drown'd, Laertes.

Laertes. Drown'd! O, where?

Gertrude. There is a willow grows aslant a brook, 3315

That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.

There with fantastic garlands did she come

Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,

That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,

But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them. 3320

There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds

Clamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver broke,

When down her weedy trophies and herself

Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide

And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up; 3325

Which time she chaunted snatches of old tunes,

As one incapable of her own distress,

Or like a creature native and indued

Unto that element; but long it could not be

Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, 3330

Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay

To muddy death.

Laertes. Alas, then she is drown'd?

Gertrude. Drown'd, drown'd.